Neverwinter enters Open Beta with a CG trailer to celebrate

It’s not often an MMO catches my attention, but let me say this about Neverwinter – I’m actually crafting in another browser window as I write this. (And yea…that’s a thing in this game) After 4 incredibly stable Beta Weekends, the team has finally reached a huge point in the games development – Open Beta. To celebrate we’ve got the opening CG cinematic of the game, but I did want to share a few of my own musings and a bit about the game from the team before I turn you loose on our ample bandwidth.

The first thing that struck me about Neverwinter is that it has clearly been built from the ground up as a Free-To-Play MMO. That isn’t to say they are sticking you for every nickle in your pocket either. The content in this game is certainly AAA in quality and there is little in the way of you enjoying the game without paying a single dime. That said, for those who want to support this fantastic title and the team behind it (Cryptic Studios), there are many ways you can do that. The usual boxes with boost items are in the game, but they are entirely optional. You can’t pay to win, but you can pay to get a leg up on the PvE in the game. For players with little time, this is a great thing. The character classes all seem to play very differently, and each has their own specific quest objectives after level 10. I’ve got several characters in the teens at this point, so stay tuned as I push higher into the content along with my fellow GT players. That said, don’t take my word for it – the game is now open beta and that means you can sample it for your self. Here’s a nibble if you’ve not kept up with our coverage so far:

The major milestone of Open Beta marks the beginning of unrestricted access to Neverwinter and its content creation system, the Foundry, along with no further character wipes. All skill upgrades, profession choices, personal customizations, companions and mounts are persistent and shape the way adventurers rebuild the city of Neverwinter, saving it from Valindra Shadowmantle’s evil forces. Neverwinter’s Foundry further enables and empowers gamers and authors to create their own unique adventures, publish their own self-generated content directly to the game world, review the missions and quests of others and even tip creators with in-game currency.

We’ve got a few folks in our forums who are building their own Foundry missions. Needless to say, you should check em out. Congratulations to Perfect World and Cryptic Studios on this very successful launch. From what I’ve seen, this may be the most seamless beta MMO launch in history! Enjoy the sweet CG intro.